How To: Survive an Emotional Storm

“Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things, Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!” James 3:5

How do we get our selves into emotional storms? Personal experience tells me the tongue is the lightning. Our emotions were created by God. They are special, wonderful, and incredibly motivating. When we allow our tongue to get involved, we have a real storm on our hands.

Let’s look at a few of the verses surrounding the two biggies.

1. Anger:

“Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go: Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.” Proverbs 22:24-25

“[It is] better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman.” Proverbs 21:19

Wow. If the devil can get you angry, he’s got you where he wants you. Yes, there is godly anger too, but what percentage of Jesus Christ’s walk was angry, versus the percentage he was walking in love towards people? It’s about 10% to 90% of the time he was healing, loving and walking in great power towards God’s children. He is our example.

What does God recommend about wrath, or anger.

“A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger. The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.” Proverbs 15:1-2

It comes back to the tongue. If you are angry about someone, whatever you do, don’t lose your temper. There are devil spirits out there whose whole purpose is to incite to anger, and riot. They rile people up, get them angry about some injustice or cause. Remember, every cause that isn’t God’s cause, is second-rate because it never brings full deliverance.

2. Envy:

“Wrath [is] cruel, and anger [is] outrageous; but who [is] able to stand before envy?” Proverbs 27:4

Envy/jealousy leads to all kinds of problems.

“But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but [is] earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife [is], there [is] confusion and every evil work.” James 3:14-16

Every evil work. Yikes! Anger and envy both lead to one thing, confusion. From there they build towards a justification in one’s mind for every evil work. They are the foundational ingredients for the devils recipe of destruction. And guess what, they all start with a thought.

Remember last week when we went through the four D’s, and the wrong decisions always start with a desire. That is our emotions taking the helm not our logical, rational, sound mind.

Have you heard that saying? Our temper gets us into trouble but our pride keeps us there.

We must be willing to sacrifice our emotions to God.

Is that a crazy thought? I remember when I was young in the Word, an older woman came along and taught me a few lessons about keeping those “female” emotions in check. I was so thankful, though it took me a year or more to put those lessons into operation. (Goodness, I’m still learning this one) God created our hormones, our emotions, and He even created the transition between emotions called, mood swings. But if our emotions are allowed to hold more authority than God or His Word, we’re off the Word. Emotions are intimately personal. God wants us to have emotions. He also knows they were never meant to drive the ship.

Here’s the devils whole agenda. Divide and conquer. How will he divide us? Cause strife, anger and emotional upsets. It’s quite a roller coaster ride. But what if we want to get off that ride?

God says further down in James 3:

“But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, [and] easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” James 3:17-18

He says in Ephesians:

“Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” Ephesians 4:31-32

If the tongue has the ability to kindle a fire, let’s kindle a fire for God’s love. Lets take the wrath and anger out of a situation by doing that verse in Proverbs 15, “A soft answer turneth away wrath.” Words are so much more powerful when they are rhema; the right word at the right time.

“But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse [your] hands, [ye] sinners; and purify [your] hearts, [ye] double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and [your] joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” James 4:6-10

This post hits home because it was a personal struggle for years. It didn’t go away until I diligently took these words to heart. It’s easy to envy someone. All we do is compare ourself to them. Whether we come out better or worse, we’re off the Word because the Word says, share don’t compare. Trust me when I say the emotional storm will be over when you check your heart in with God. Let Him lift you up. Let Him guide your emotions. God needs you busy doing the specific works He custom designed for you more than anything else on earth. You’ll have your hands so full of things to do you won’t have time to think of anything else.